Johann Wilhelm Hässler

He first studied under his uncle Johann Christian Kittel, who was an organist at Erfurt.

On these tours he also came into contact with Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Johann Adam Hiller, Franz Benda, and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.

He spent 1790 to 1792 in London and then moved to Saint Petersburg before settling in Moscow in 1794, where he worked as a prominent music teacher and composer.

His publications include many keyboard works, including sonatas, fantasies, preludes, and his best known piano work, the Grand Gigue in D minor, Op.

One of the most unusual of Hässler's compositions is a cycle of 360 preludes in all keys Op.